Skylanders: Darkness Reigns
by Starlight714
Summary: This is the first chapter of our story, Skylanders: Darkness reigns. In this chapter, our in-story characters, Anthony and Star, discover Skylands, agree to be portal masters, meet their allies, and resolve to keep the peace in Skylands. The story is rated T, just to be safe. And also: Disclaimer: We do not own Skylanders. We are not affiliated with Skylanders.


Disclaimer: We do not own Skylanders. We are not affiliated with Skylanders.

Skylanders: Darkness Reigns

-Chapter One: Into Skylands-

It was another beautiful weekend spring day in my neighborhood: The sun was shining, the birds were singing and I was cooped up in my room trying to finish my math homework. I had been at this for a while, and although the end of the worksheet was coming up, it felt like this was going on for a lot longer than I wanted…

Yet I had a good reason for trying to get this done: I wanted to get it finished before tomorrow, and soon my old friend Star was coming over to show me a video game she had talked about, from a franchise called "Skylanders". She was going to let me try it out with her, and so, the promise of adventure was on its way, which sounded good to me, because nothing sounded less adventurous to me right now than this dang Trigonometry.

I kept on working until I eventually was down to the last two problems and heard my mom call me.

"ANTHONY!"

I got up and opened the door to my room and yelled, "What?"

"Star is going to be here soon! Are you ready?" She answered.

"Aha… nearly. I should be ready to go on time." I told her. Then I closed the door and finished up the last two problems, and then I checked the clock. 11:58-Star was due to arrive in two minutes! I hastily stepped out of my room and moved just as quickly to the front door, waiting for my guest.

I stood there and reflected on what I had done. That had been boring, but it was good to be responsible… soon though I heard the doorbell ring and I snapped out of my trance before I walked over and opened it.

And there she was: Star was a very tall girl at a six-foot height, and noticeably slender. Naturally she was dressed informally today. She had on her purple hoodie that had some interesting sky-blue vertical stripes around the sleeves and sides and had jeans on that had pale blue stripes on them as well and her tennis shoes. I could see her shoulder-length black hair blowing in the breeze, since the hood was down, with it being spring and all. I saw her carrying a small plastic bag, no doubt with the game in it.

"Hi Anthony." She said.

"Hey, Star, good to see you're here! Come on in, why don't you?" I asked. She stepped on in and I closed the door before we walked up to my room, where my Xbox 360 was situated-the game console we'd be using.

"What have you been up to this morning? Star asked.

"My most recent Trigonometry homework…" I said back.

"Oh yeah, your least favorite subject!" Star teased.

I rolled my eyes as I said, "I only wish I was as good at math as I was at video games! It looks like you've got the one you were talking about there, though."

"Of course!" Star replied.

By now we had arrived and we went into my room before I closed the door behind us.

"Hang on, I'll get everything out," Star said. She pulled out the game box and a controller as well as a circular device called a "Portal of Power". So she had brought it… I had heard you needed it to play, and I didn't know if she was going to bring it, so I had gotten one just in case, although this was no doubt a classic case of me jumping to conclusions. Mine was placed on the small bookcase that my TV was on.

"Okay, these are what you'll need to play-" Star began, but then her eyes wandered over to the bookcase and she said, "Oh; you've got your own Portal of Power?"

"Yeah. I got one just in case." I responded.

"Oh. Well, that's just like you, Anthony." Star said.

"Yeah, I'm sorry." I told her.

"Don't worry about it. I'll just set mine down next to yours and turn the game on." Star said.

And she placed her Portal of Power next to mine and inserted the game disc into the Xbox 360. I watched the opening screens… but then I thought I heard a rattling noise.

I turned my head towards the Portals of Power and saw them starting to vibrate! I stared at them intently and then I heard Star say: "Anthony?"

I was speechless and my eyes were still fixed on the Portals. Soon though, I heard her gasp softly. I guess she must have seen it too… the Portals kept vibrating until they teetered off the edge of the bookcase and fell with their backs up to the ceiling.

Star and I ran over and looked at them. "That's weird… why would they start shaking like that?" I asked. Then I turned to Star and asked, "Star, was that an earthquake?"

"No… nothing else in the room shook…" Star replied. We picked them up and lifted them up, but when the top surfaces of our portals of power were facing each other, the Portals wouldn't let us move them upward… it was like they were resisting us…

Star and I exchanged glances and soon a beam formed between them and within seconds, an odd swirling orange vortex formed in between them! That was when we felt the Portals had stopped resisting us. We let go and they suddenly fell to the ground. That didn't matter one bit though… right now our attention was on the vortex.

"Is this… real?" I asked as I approached it.

"I don't know what it is…" Star said as she went closer to it. Yet as we were within mere inches of it, I felt myself being drawn towards it… being sucked in! I felt myself go through the vortex and then the scenery of my room was gone. All I saw was a white space around me, for a few seconds, and soon I saw an odd place beneath me… it had architecture that looked like it was in pretty shabby condition, along with grass growing on the ground and an odd dome-like… machine from the looks of it.

I sped towards the grassy ground until I landed on my feet for a soft landing. I looked around and didn't see Star anywhere… "Star?" I asked. No one answered. "STAR!" I yelled. Soon though, I saw her falling from the sky above. I ran over and saw she came down softly like me and said, "It's good to see you're okay."

But Star was very intently looking around this area… "Star?" I asked.

She turned to me. "Where is this place?"

"…Anthony, this _IS_ Skylands- the world in Skylanders! I'm not sure how it happened, but we're in the game!" She exclaimed.

"Are you… serious?" I asked. Before Star could respond, though, I heard a man's voice from out of nowhere.

"Greetings, Portal Masters!"

We both turned and saw the silhouette of an old man's head fading into reality! He had a very long white beard and short white hair, which was mostly covered up by a helmet with spikes on it. His eyes were a vibrant sky blue. "Who are YOU?!" I asked.

"E-Eon?!" Star stuttered.

The old man's face turned to her and said: "Ah, yes, you're a familiar face from Earth! I know you from your Skylanders!"

"What's going on? Why are we here?" Star asked.

"I think I should explain what this world is to your friend before I go too far into it." Eon said. He then turned to me and beamed as he began to talk. "Hello prospective Portal Master—I am Eon. I am a spirit who oversees this world… Skylands."

"What is this place?" I asked.

And Eon explained it all. He said Skylands was a world of floating islands in the Skies that were all different and diverse. It was a world full of many creatures and adventures, and it was kept safe by people who were called 'Portal Masters' and their heroic companions, their 'Skylanders'. Eon said he was the head of a council that is responsible for keeping peace in Skylands, along with some other members.

"Why are we here then, Eon?" Star asked.

"I'm not sure I can explain it, but I will try my best; there is something about your Portal of Powers that caused some kind of a reaction that made something that could connect two dimensions together and bring you through unscathed to this world. In other words, your Portals had some extraordinary power that brought you directly to our world." Eon said.

"Okaaay… So what are we going to do now?" I asked.

"Well, as long as you are here, I don't suppose you'd like to be Portal Masters first hand? You wanted to play the game, so why not play it _inside_ our world?" Eon said. Well, it sounded like it would be the more fun way to go about it…

"Alright then, I'm in!" I said.

"Me too!" Star said.

"Excellent! Thank you both for being involved. Well then, might I know your names?" Eon asked.

"My name is Anthony." I said.

"I'm Star." Star answered.

"Alright then, Star, Anthony. First of all-a present from me to you…" Eon said, and then our forearms right below our biceps began to glow on our left arms…When they stopped, Star and I had some odd armor-like things on our arms…

Mine was colored white and silver and had wing-like adornments where my shoulder was. It looked like it had some buttons on it too.

Star's however, was colored gold and had rhombus-shaped holes in between the alloy here and there so you could see her sleeve through them (there were some smaller buttons on hers, too though). It had a jade green gem on the shoulder, too.

Eon then went on. "Those are Portal Gloves. They are ancient, very special equipment that can hold your Skylanders inside as data. With it, you can call them out one-by-one instead of having to have them all out, or keep them inside if you're going somewhere they can't cross."

"Wow! How impressive! Thanks Eon!" I said.

"Yeah, thanks!" Star said.

"Anytime. Now Star, you already have your Skylanders, so I'll let you familiarize yourself with them…" Eon said as four creatures materialized in front of her.

One was a strange humanoid who was wearing black and red armor. It had a helm that exposed its face and pointy ears and the armor covered the rest of its body. It had a dull sky blue face with black eyebrows and empty, piercing white eyes. It also had two odd blue orbs, one on its chest and the other above its nose on its helm that had electricity buzzing over them, and was armed with a spear. The really strange part about this thing was that it was riding a skeletal steed! Its mount looked kind of like an ostrich…

Another one was a female, humanoid doll-like creature. She wore blue boots with brown pants and blue armor on her upper body and arms, with yellow armor over her fingers. She wore blue goggles and had shoulder-length red hair and was also carrying a large wrench…

Yet another one was an odd, bird-looking creature who had blue pants and a blue long-sleeved shirt. He wore a silver belt and silver kneepads, as well as a silver 'x' shaped harness on his upper body that was connected to a badge in the middle. He wore a blue helmet on his head, but his face was exposed, which consisted of his beak, eyes and many facial feathers. His talons were visible, but he also had odd, finger-like talons and was carrying a large, bazooka-like projectile weapon that was hooked to a vacuum-like device on his back…

The last one was a griffin-looking creature. It had black feathers all over its body and walked on four legs. It had silver cuffs around its ankles and a long tail, along with large, impressive black wings and its head had a silver helmet that covered up the top of its head, but not its pointed ears. It had glimmering, green eyes and a large beak.

Star happily started talking to them, even addressing them by name. She called the humanoid that was riding the ostrich "Rider", and the skeletal ostrich "Fright", the doll-like humanoid "Sprocket", the walking bird "Jet-Vac", and the griffin "Sonic Boom", leaving me wondering what to do…

Thankfully, Eon turned to me and said, "And Anthony… now would be a good time to give you your Skylanders. We have a few extras on hand… First of all, as a new Portal Master, I think it is appropriate to give you a more experienced Skylander to help you learn the ropes. I'll introduce you to him now…" And then Eon said: "Come, Bouncer!"

And before I knew it, an enormous machine emerged before me! He was a giant, at least ten-foot tall humanoid robot! Or rather, he had a humanoid upper body. He had a yellow head with bright-yellow "eyes", which looked more like lamps, and shoulders with spiked pads on the tops. He had a yellow upper body with red lightning bolts painted on that connected his shoulders to a gear in the middle of his torso. His hands were yellow and had fingers (yet strangely, the tips of the index fingers were open with holes…) and massive red armlets as wrists with gray biceps. His lower body looked like it was attached by a spring inside yellow metal that was attached to a coil around a wheel on a pole…

"WOW! Is he a Skylander? He's huge!" I said.

The robot, Bouncer, just chuckled and said, "Is this a newbie, Eon?"

"That's right! He is very new to Skylands, Bouncer, and I think he would benefit from your support," Eon said.

"Alright! It's been a long time since I've had a Portal Master!" Bouncer said. Then he looked down at me and said: "I'm Bouncer! I know I'll be useful to you. Who are you?"

"My name's Anthony. It's good to meet you Bouncer!" I said.

Bouncer laughed and said, "Alright then! You still look a little shaky, but don't worry; I'll take good care of you! Just leave the rough stuff to me, yeah!" Bouncer said. He seemed quite sure of himself… "Alright, good to hear, Bouncer!" I said.

"Alright then. It's good to see you and Bouncer get along. So without further ado, I present to you the next vacant Skylander we have…" Eon said. I didn't know if I should expect all the Skylanders to be as enormous as Bouncer… but it seemed that was disproven when a little purple dragon emerged in front of me.

He walked on four legs and had yellow-orange horns and a tail with a yellow tip on the end, as well as a yellow-orange underbelly and orange wings. He also had orange spikes from in between his horns down to his tail tip. He had sharp, yellow claws and eyes with red irises. The dragon saw me and said: "Oh, hello! Are you a new Portal Master, by chance?"

"Yes, I am! My name is Anthony." I said.

"Oh, that's great! My name is Spyro, and I'd be glad to explore with you. It's been a long time since I've had the chance to stretch my wings out in the open!" The dragon said.

"Sounds good to me!" I said.

Eon chuckled and said: "It looks like you get along well with a lot of different Skylanders. Well, here's the next one we have…" And a shorter, female elf-looking creature appeared before me… She had green skin, pointy ears and (like Star's Skylander, Rider) empty white eyes and black eye brows. She wore a brown cloth over her mouth and a brown top, as well as a brown short skirt and brown pants, with brown gloves on her hands and brown shoes. She had a waist-length blue braid and was armed with two small, curved white tusk-like daggers… She looked at me, but didn't say anything right away so I spoke first. "Hi there! My name's Anthony. Are you a Skylander?"

"Yeah, my name's Stealth Elf… It's nice to meet you…" She said shyly.

"Pleasure to meet you too, Stealth Elf!" I said.

Then Eon broke this conversation up too. "Okay, almost done. Here's the last Skylander we have…" And a little blue reptile appeared before me. It also walked on four legs and had two long, curved sky blue horns on the back of its head and a green crescent-shaped fin on its head. It had red jet packs on its back and I could see on its underbelly that it wore a yellow vest-like garment with a green center on his chest. The rest of its back and its small tail were covered with green spines. Its toes were very circular, too…

The little blue reptile's face lit up when he saw me and said, "Oh, hi! My name's Zap! Are you a new Portal Master?" His voice was unusually high, and it sounded like he was gargling water, although I couldn't find any evidence that he was.

"Yup! My name's Anthony." I said.

"I sure hope I'll get to go with you! That'd be fun!" Zap said.

Eon smiled and spoke. "Alright. Now feel free to talk to your Skylanders and get to know them Anthony. Let me know how you like them afterwards." Eon said. And I walked off with all of them. I decided to try talking to Bouncer first.

"So Bouncer, it looks like you're about as tall as they come. What kind of things have you done?" I asked. And then I got a huge lecture containing more information about him than I ever thought he would impart to someone who wasn't even his friend yet… I did learn a lot though! Apparently Bouncer has been alive for an incredibly long time, and long ago he once (with the help of others like him, although he emphasized that less) ended the empire of an evil race of machines called the "Arkeyans" when they once had controlled all of Skylands! He also said he had once been a player in a sport called "Roboto-Ball". Bouncer seemed very egotistical, but his desire to keep accomplishing bigger, more admirable feats made me respect him.

Looking around, I saw the other Skylanders' reactions. Spyro and Zap were trying to look interested, but they had a hard time keeping a straight face and Stealth Elf looked totally disengaged, although Bouncer didn't even seem to notice...

"…Alright, very impressive. So now-" I began, but then Bouncer interrupted: "Darn right! I'm one heck of a Skylander. Hoo-boy!"

"Alright, that's good Bouncer, thank you. So anyway, what made you become a Skylander, Spyro?" I asked, turning to him.

"Well, ever since I was a kid, I was fighting off evil. Before I came to Skylands, I was trying to defeat a tyrant named Malefor, and I ultimately succeeded. Although it never would have been possible if it weren't for—" he began, but then trailed off…

"Spyro?" I asked.

"Never mind. Anyway, I just don't want anyone to have to suffer, so that was part of what inspired me to take this job. Being a Skylander really isn't anything new to me and I get a lot out of it." He finished.

"Alright, sounds good to me." I said. Then I turned to Zap and said: "How come you're so excited to get to work, Zap?"

"Being a Skylander is fun! And the best part of all is that you know you're really making a difference! Knowing that you made someone happy or that someone's village is now safe thanks to your work is its own reward!" Zap replied.

I smiled and nodded. "That's nice." Then I turned to Stealth Elf and said: "What are you hoping to achieve by adventuring, Stealth Elf?"

"…I just want to make sure Skylands doesn't have to suffer. That's wrong…" She said back.

"That's absolutely true." I said. "Well alright then. Let's go back to Eon." And we all walked back together. When we arrived, I stood before Eon.

"Alright Anthony, it looks like you've taken getting to know your Skylanders seriously. So… which ones work for you?" Eon asked.

"They're all keepers." I replied. I heard Zap call out behind me: "Oh boy! This'll be great!"

"I'm glad that you get along with all of them, Anthony. And it looks like Star has finished talking to her Skylanders as well…" Eon said looking over at her and her Skylanders. I looked over too before we turned back to each other and Eon went on. "So it's time to introduce you to some other members of the council." Eon glanced at Star. "Star, could you come here for a moment, please?" And Star looked over and came with her Skylanders in tow.

"What is it, Eon?" She asked.

"Before you start your adventure, I wanted to introduce you both to some very important people. Come with me." Eon said.

And Eon took us over to that dome-machine I had seen on my way down. There were some robed people who were talking standing nearby.

One was in a yellow-and-orange one that had flame patterns on it and was colored dark orange at the very bottom. She also had fiery fuchsia-colored eyes.

Another one was in a brown robe that had boulders on it, and muddy tire patterns. He had pale tan eyes and an auburn colored cap.

The next one was in a dark green robe with sunflower patterns on it, as well as white flower petals coming out from the bottom.

Yet another one was wearing a dark gray robe that had a white skull on the upper body, and various other dark symbols.

One was in a white robe that had lightning bolts and a sun on it, and the bottom had a cloud-like design to it. She also wore a bonnet that was shaped like a cloud.

The sixth one was in a robe that was yellow and had gears all over it, as well as some high-tech looking designs on its backside.

The seventh one was in a light blue robe that had bubbles on it and the lower half was colored blue and had pale blue ribbons trailing behind it.

And the last one was in a purple robe that had some magenta spirals and lavender 'infinity' symbols on it. It also had multiple other letter symbols on it as well.

Eon turned to the machine itself and said: "This is the Core of Light. It is powered by many powerful, magical components. The most valuable of which are the Eternal Sources, the embodiments of all eight elements in Skylands. These consist of Fire, Earth, Life, Undead, Air, Tech, Water and Magic. Together, all the components in this device suppress the 'Darkness' in Skylands, which is an odd natural phenomenon in Skylands that-when not contained-brings out the bad sides of Skylands' residents. Fortunately, those days are behind us now that the core is restored. And speaking of which…" Eon said as he turned to the robed people and said, "Keepers! I have two people here I would like you to meet!" And they all turned around and came towards us.

When they were all lined up in front of Eon, Eon said: "Anthony, Star- these are some very important members of the council I was talking about. These are the 'keepers' of each Eternal Source. They are responsible for keeping them safe and have been charged with their powers." Then he introduced us to them, one-by-one.

The one in the yellow-and-orange robe was named Ember and she was the keeper of the Eternal Fire Source.

The one in the boulder robe was named Dusty and he was the keeper of the Eternal Earth Source.

The one in the flower robe was named Daisy and she was the keeper of the Eternal Life Source.

The one in the skull robe was nicknamed Ribs and he was the keeper of the Eternal Undead Source.

The one in the lightning bolt robe was named Aero and she was the keeper of the Eternal Air Source.

The one in the gear robe was named Gearfield and he was the keeper of the Eternal Tech Source

The one in the bubble robe was aptly named Bubbles and she was the keeper of the Eternal Water Source

And the eighth one in the purple robe was named Darmok, and he was the keeper of the Eternal Magic Source.

We greeted them all. Afterwards, Eon spoke again. "And that is all! Now I'll let you both look around as much as you like. Come and see me when you're ready to move on!"

Star wandered off, while I walked around a bit, and when I returned, Darmok approached me. "Hello there, Anthony. Do you mind if I speak to you?"

"Not at all. What is it?" I asked.

"I'm impressed to see another person in this world… it's commendable that you wanted to be so involved in being a Portal Master." Darmok said.

"Thanks." I said back.

"And you never knew anything about Skylands before coming here, Anthony?" Darmok asked.

"Well, my friend Star talked about it, but otherwise, no, I didn't. What do you feel it's like, Darmok?" I asked.

"It's a wonderful place to be sure. A world full of potential and adventure. It's the kind of world anyone would want to protect, and yet…" He said, but he broke off.

"…What?" I asked.

"Recently, an evil dictator was ruling Skylands. He was stopped about half a year ago, and when he was, I thought that everything would become completely peaceful, like a perfect world… and yet there's still evil in this world. There's a lot less of it to be sure, but even so, attacks and theft still occur from time to time. I couldn't understand why anyone in this world would want that to continue…" Darmok finished.

"Well, where there's light, there's shadow. That's the way it goes, I guess. But it doesn't matter-as long as you keepers are here and backed up by me and Star, there won't be anything to worry about!" I said.

Darmok laughed and shook his head. "You're a spirited one. Well that's the best way to be, I suppose. Thanks, Anthony."

"No problem." I replied, smiling.

Of course, by now I was eager to get adventuring. "Well, speaking of adventure, I'm eager to get off on my first one! Mind if I go, Darmok?"

"Of course not, that's why you're here. Good luck, now." He replied.

"Thanks!" I said as I went off. Soon enough, I found Eon and Star. Had she been waiting for me for long? All the same though, this was exciting-within moments, I would be getting my first real taste of adventure!


End file.
